A period of activity as opposed to a period of rest, without reference to any specific length of cycle. Frequently used to express a period of planetary activity and its seven races. Glossary
When every petal vibrates in all the dimensions, then the goal for this manvantara is reached. LOM, p 81
We now come, in due course, to the point of merging or to the end of manifestation, and to the consummation (viewing it monadically) of the great cycle or manvantara. TOCF, p 47
A further chain of ideas may be followed up in the remembrance that the fourth ether is even now being studied and developed by the average scientist, and is already somewhat harnessed to the service of man; that the fourth subplane of the astral plane is the normal functioning ground of the average man and that in this round escape from the etheric vehicle is being achieved; that the fourth subplane of the mental plane is the present goal of endeavor of one-fourth of the human family; that the fourth manvantara will see the solar ring-pass-not offering avenues of escape to those who have reached the necessary point; that the four planetary Logoi will perfect Their escape from Their planetary environment, and will function with greater ease on the cosmic astral plane, paralleling on cosmic levels the achievement of the human units who are the cells in Their bodies. TOCF, p 115
If a man persists from life to life in this line of action, if he neglects his spiritual development and concentrates on intellectual effort turned to the manipulation of matter for selfish ends, if he continues this in spite of the promptings of his inner self, and in spite of the warnings that may reach him from Those who watch, and if this is carried on for a long period he may bring upon himself a destruction that is final for this manvantara or cycle. TOCF, p 127
But the dead worlds left behind the onsweeping impulse do not continue dead. Motion is the eternal order of things and affinity or attraction its handmaid of all works. The thrill of life will again reunite the atom, and it will stir again in the inert planet when the time comes. Though all its forces have remained status quo and axe now asleep, yet little by little it will - when the hour restrikes - gather for a new cycle of man-bearing maternity, and give birth to something still higher as moral and physical types than during the preceding manvantara. And its "cosmic atoms already in a differentiated state" (differing - in the producing force in the mechanical sense of motions and effects) remain statu quo as well as globes and everything else in the process of formation." Such is the "hypothesis fully in accordance with (your) (my) note." For, as planetary development is as progressive as human or race evolution, the hour of the Pralaya's coming catches the series of worlds at successive stages of evolution; (i.e.) each has attained to some one of the periods of evolutionary progress - each stops there, until the outward impulse of the next manvantara sets it going from that very point - like a stopped time-piece rewound. Therefore, I have used the word "differentiated."
- From The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, p. 67.
Repetition in time: The thought of cyclic activity necessitates periods of time of differing length - greater or lesser cycles - but (according to their length) of uniform degree. A manvantara, or Day of Brahma, is always of a certain length, and so is a mahamanvantara. The cycles wherein an atom of any plane revolves upon its axis are uniform on its own plane. TOCF, p 273
Manvantara
A period of activity as opposed to a period of rest, without reference to any specific length of cycle. Frequently used to express a period of planetary activity and its seven races. Glossary
When every petal vibrates in all the dimensions, then the goal for this manvantara is reached. LOM, p 81
We now come, in due course, to the point of merging or to the end of manifestation, and to the consummation (viewing it monadically) of the great cycle or manvantara. TOCF, p 47
A further chain of ideas may be followed up in the remembrance that the fourth ether is even now being studied and developed by the average scientist, and is already somewhat harnessed to the service of man; that the fourth subplane of the astral plane is the normal functioning ground of the average man and that in this round escape from the etheric vehicle is being achieved; that the fourth subplane of the mental plane is the present goal of endeavor of one-fourth of the human family; that the fourth manvantara will see the solar ring-pass-not offering avenues of escape to those who have reached the necessary point; that the four planetary Logoi will perfect Their escape from Their planetary environment, and will function with greater ease on the cosmic astral plane, paralleling on cosmic levels the achievement of the human units who are the cells in Their bodies. TOCF, p 115
If a man persists from life to life in this line of action, if he neglects his spiritual development and concentrates on intellectual effort turned to the manipulation of matter for selfish ends, if he continues this in spite of the promptings of his inner self, and in spite of the warnings that may reach him from Those who watch, and if this is carried on for a long period he may bring upon himself a destruction that is final for this manvantara or cycle. TOCF, p 127
But the dead worlds left behind the onsweeping impulse do not continue dead. Motion is the eternal order of things and affinity or attraction its handmaid of all works. The thrill of life will again reunite the atom, and it will stir again in the inert planet when the time comes. Though all its forces have remained status quo and axe now asleep, yet little by little it will - when the hour restrikes - gather for a new cycle of man-bearing maternity, and give birth to something still higher as moral and physical types than during the preceding manvantara. And its "cosmic atoms already in a differentiated state" (differing - in the producing force in the mechanical sense of motions and effects) remain statu quo as well as globes and everything else in the process of formation." Such is the "hypothesis fully in accordance with (your) (my) note." For, as planetary development is as progressive as human or race evolution, the hour of the Pralaya's coming catches the series of worlds at successive stages of evolution; (i.e.) each has attained to some one of the periods of evolutionary progress - each stops there, until the outward impulse of the next manvantara sets it going from that very point - like a stopped time-piece rewound. Therefore, I have used the word "differentiated."
- From The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, p. 67.
Repetition in time: The thought of cyclic activity necessitates periods of time of differing length - greater or lesser cycles - but (according to their length) of uniform degree. A manvantara, or Day of Brahma, is always of a certain length, and so is a mahamanvantara. The cycles wherein an atom of any plane revolves upon its axis are uniform on its own plane. TOCF, p 273